For Sale: One Heart
by nericearren
Summary: Even Fairy Tail celebrates Valentine's Day . . . In which Cana makes a fortune, Jellal is(certainly)not there, and, predictably, Natsu comes out the hero. LucyXNatsu. In honor of the worst holiday in the world. Happy Valentine's Day.


The only thing worse than fake flowers and aluminum balloons, Lucy decided, was the obnoxious heart-shaped boxes up on the stage in the guild. They were glaring at her, she was prepared to swear, mocking her in their pink-and-red cases, full of chocolatey indulgence and things she would never have.

She _hated_ Valentine's Day.

She had never been a fan of the holiday when living in the austere mansion that she'd been forced to call home. She'd done her best to make the holiday cheerful, baking an enormous cake to share with all the servants and sometimes decorating the main dining room as a surprise, but all she had ever wanted was to share the day with her father, the only "valentine" she had, and he had never come. Now, in the guild, it looked like everyone was hooking up, leaving her the only single mage in the place.

The candy auction was by no means helping.

It had been her and Lisanna's idea, originally, about a month ago when Valentine's Day in Fairy Tail seemed like a fun and exciting prospect, and they'd pitched it to the Master as a way to raise money for the guild's ample catastrophe fund. The concept was simple, the same as that of any boxed lunch auction or church fundraiser-people would buy or make boxes of chocolates or other goodies, anonymously donate them to the auction with their names written on the inside of the box, and then the boxes would be bid on on Valentine's Day. When whoever bid opened the box, they would see the name written inside, and that was their date to the annual Valentine's Day Dance held in Magnolia Square. The fun part came when boys hoping to get a certain girl, or vice versa, tried to use magic to surreptitiously guess which candy was whose. Cana had become very popular in the past few days, and started charging for her services.

Lucy sighed and glanced over her shoulder to where her friend was tucking into the barrel of beer that she'd gotten with her "hard-earned" money. Even the perpetually dumped alcoholic was having a better holiday.

To Lucy's left, Juvia was pointing out the box that she'd made to Gray and hinting, not-so-subtly, that he should bid on it. Gray kept shooting Lucy "help me!" glances; she supposed she could always just tell him which one was hers and go on a date with a friend. But she felt bad for Juvia, and so just gave him a sympathetic smile and turned away. A little romance would be good for the ice mage, who sometimes seemed more occupied with looking cool than making friends.

Elfman had refused to participate in the auction, saying that real men neither bought women nor allowed themselves to be sold, and, in solidarity, Evergreen had joined him in the protest. The two of them had disappeared somewhere; Lucy wondered how long it would take the rest of the guild to figure out that they were dating in secret. It wasn't like they were inconspicuous about it.

Mystogan had mysteriously and suspiciously come back to the guild, even though he was supposed to be in Edolas, and was currently bidding on the Heart Cruz box that had to be Erza's. Lucy tried to convince herself that there was no way Jellal had broken out of jail for a _Valentine's Day_ party; she was only partially successful. So she just kept her eyes away from that part of the room so that she could truthfully tell anyone who asked that, no, she had not seen an escaped convict in their guild hall.

Even Levy and Gajeel, in their own circumspect ways, had rallied to the holiday; Gajeel hoisting Levy on his shoulders as she adjusted her glasses to zoom and started telling people around her whose box was whose-for a price, of course. Neither would admit to entering a box, but Lucy could clearly see one full of iron rather than chocolate, and highly doubted their protests of ignorance on the matter.

And Natsu, stupid, oblivious Natsu, her own best friend, had abandoned her for Lisanna's company. If Lucy was honest with herself, that was the real reason behind her depression. Once again, this stupid holiday would be spent _not_ with the person she wanted to be with. It wasn't even that she was in love with him or anything-really-she just . . . didn't want him with Lisanna. How horrible. She _liked_ Lisanna, had no business being jealous or petty; but the thought of her best friend getting a girlfriend, having a girl in his life more important than her, made her sad. Natsu had always been the person she could count on to not get caught up in that he-likes-her-she-likes-him crap, and there he was, leaning his head in to hear what Lisanna was whispering in his ear.

They made a good couple, she had to admit, and she was happy for him. She just wished that it didn't leave her totally alone. There he was now, bidding. Lisanna had probably told him what box was hers. Lucy shook her head. Didn't matter. She didn't care. She wasn't going to be _that_ girl, the one who wouldn't let her friends do anything without her.

Still, it was really weird for Natsu to buy into this crap. Romance wasn't exactly his thing. To put it bluntly, he was a social idiot. Girls were just boys with breasts, in his mind. Lucy snickered. That was right: even if he had a girlfriend, she couldn't imagine him changing so easily. Lisanna should more be pitied for liking the idiot, than envied for having him.

Her better attitude affixed firmly in place, Lucy resolved to join Cana in drinking the holiday away. The auction was winding up, anyway. Nearly every box had been sold; and some strange and unfortunate couples had been formed, since not everyone had wanted to cheat or been able to afford it. Fried and Bixlow were eyeing each other and agreeing that the pointless dance should just be skipped; after deliberately _not_ buying Juvia's box, Gray had ended up with Bisca's(much to Alark's supreme and badly concealed horror); and Levy and Gajeel were pointedly not talking to each other since the big idiot had totally missed the giant clue of metal chocolates and wound up with Laxus's box.

Just as Lucy was making her way to Cana, the card mage's drinking was interrupted by a box thrust in her face. Macao looked down at her, one eyebrow raised. "Too old for this crap, my ass." he challenged. "You owe me a dance."

She shoved the box away. "Go pester Mira for a date."

"You put the box in. Gotta play by the rules, kid."

Cana actually blushed. Lucy wheeled around and pretended she'd seen nothing. It looked like even Cana had a date. Well, maybe she and Levy could go together, since the small mage was currently at the bar, intent on consuming her weight in alcohol, alone.

"Lucy!" Natsu came up to her, idiotic grin plastered on his face. "Guess what?"

"You got a date. Congratulations." she didn't bother to keep the sarcasm from her voice. He was, as usual, impervious. "I sure did! Lisanna helped me!"

"Mm-hm. That's nice."

He waved the box at her. Lucy tried not to hate that particular box, but it was hard, especially since it was the same as the one she'd entered. She knew she should have tried harder, but a convenience store box of chocolates was all she'd been able to muster the enthusiasm for. It seemed that Lisanna had had the same idea. It was almost ironic, if she was in the mood to feel like an angsty soap opera star.

"You have fun." she told him, and he got a funny look on his face.

"Um. Yeah, I will. You, too." he said, confusion evident in his tone. Lucy sighed. "Mm, I'll probably just stay home or something. Even Cana's got someone to go with." she shook her head and put on a bright smile, striving for the chipper girl that usually encouraged Natsu, even when he was doing something dangerous or brainless or both. "Always next year, right?" She shouldn't make him feel bad, for crap's sake. It wasn't really _his_ fault she was being such a downer. It was just this stupid holiday, making single people feel lonely if they didn't have a boyfriend or anyone they liked.

Natsu made a face. "Uh, Lucy? You don't want to go?"

"Well, everyone's already got a date, and I'm sick of always being the single one on Valentine's Day-" Lucy cut herself off, staring at the stage. Mirajane hadn't yet started to clean up, but Lucy's box was clearly gone. All of the boxes were.

Someone had bought her?  
Natsu waved the box again, getting her attention. "Who said you're single?"

Lucy blinked. "You-"

He blushed. "Yeah. Unless you really don't want to go."

"But, Lisanna-I thought that you two-"

"Her sister was the organizer. She did a little snooping beforehand."

Great; now there were two Strauss matchmakers. Lucy bit her lip. "Okay, now I feel kind of . . ."

"Stupid because you doubted your awesome teammate? It's alright-I know I'm way too cool for you to handle." Natsu struck a pose. She whacked him on the head. "Happy, you moron!"

"I didn't do anything!" Happy protested, from over Natsu's shoulder.

Lucy just shook her head. "I'm really happy."

"Oh, good. For a second there, I thought you were depressed about it; but I guess you were just being your usual clueless Lucy self."

Okay, so he wasn't Prince Charming.

But he was her best friend, and he fully deserved the kiss on the cheek that she gave him.


End file.
